Weapon Degradation

[Jeeers]

I really like the idea of weapon degradation if it's not permanent in some way (weapon doesn't lose stats over time).
.... Small touch that adds to realism. That was the feature I loved in original Diablo. But I agree with above comments that degradation should no happen too fast, but swords do lose sharpness pretty quck in real life. I guess this feature is only to encourage player to sharpen swords and prepare more seriously before fights - encounter dangerous monster - read all available information / track it / meditate / sharpen your swords / drink some potions / .....probably die anyway
... and if you neglect to sharpen swords for a longer period, then your only solution is a blacksmith ....
It could work very well, but it depends on balancing this feature. Nobody wants it to become a chore.

 

[shawn_kh]

It can be fun if the weapons do not degrade after each fight and too soon, and the players don't have to use parts and scraps to fix the weapons. I have never seen the point of using whitestones to get the temporary increase in sword damage in the other two games, but it would be cool if they were used as they actually are in reality. Let's say after several encounters with a numerous enemies, Geralt's weapon degrades. If you have a whitestone, then an option pops up in the meditation screen that allows Geralt to sharpen his sword. Also each white stone should last several times, and then a new white stone should be purchased or found. I think 1 hour of meditation should be required for sharpening of the swords and an animation of Geralt sharpening his sword as the time fastforwards would add to the immersion.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

Man, you mentioned Dogma 6 times in this post...Maybe I should play it

You should, it might be a little to easy on the combat side and the story is not a mature witcher story, but damn it.... it's the closest, most highest potential to being my dream rpg game of all time. Pros: Great ingame combat/animations, monster climbing, skills, easy invetory,cool monster design/AI some good humor, good fun, NG+, Hard mode, speed run mode, cool mood/atmosphere, you can pick up people and throw them or carry them,awesome dragons,magic,classes, options to turn off hud elements, fun upgrade system.replay is high and that says a lot coming from a gamer like me.
Cons: no weather system, annyoing pawns that never stop talking but at least you can kill them and play alone, no horse mounts, no swimming, no mature adult story or full nudity, not dark or creepy enough, no dismemberment system, no sex, no bars or mini games, no full MP, they have hightlighted items of interest, xp points that pop up on screen, fetch quest, graphics should look like TW3..oh and it's missing Geralt haha but yeah.. it's still fun, and I still wish some devs somewhere, someday.. will build off of it in a way, and make it even more awesome and fun for adults without out all the stupid little bullshit that can ruin an otherwise great game.

 

[turuzzusapatuttu]

Mmm I'm not so sure this feature will make the game more enjoyable... I guess I'll have to try it before I can express a constructive opinion about that.

 

[Cerberus_Zero]

Weapon durability to me in any game is a pointless feature. It ultimately adds no depth to the game in any possible way. All it does is make you see that your weapon is about to break and that you need to conserve it until you can repair it. In the meantime, you'll just switch to another weapon until you get your best weapon repaired. Either that, or you'll just save it for the harder fights. All this is gonna amount to is having to make trips back and forth to blacksmiths to repair equipment.

 

[CostinRaz]

Good. It's annoying how you can play an entire game without having to maintain your weapon. A sword is FRAGILE and expensive, especially a silver one.

 

[kissybyc]

While I have had my share of annoyance dealing with weapon degradation in other games, I actually think Witcher lore is one of those lores that can get it right.

First of all we have whetstone in Witcher. What if, instead of being broken, Geralt's swords lose "sharpness" over fights, and require whetstones to restore the sharpness. I think it makes more sense than using whetstone as essentially another form of blade oil. We have always had whetstones in the game, so it won't be as intrusive a feature. And losing sharpness does not have to matter a whole lot. Losing chances to inflict bleeding damage, for example, would be a good punishment for poor weapon condition IMO.

And we also have two types of swords. According to the lore, Geralt actually uses his meteorite steel sword more often than the silver one, as most monsters are susceptible to both. Now I haven't read all the books, but from previous debates on the forum, I gathered that Geralt in the lore uses steel sword more because it is cheaper to maintain -- the human->steel and monster->silver distinction is not that strict in the books (correct me if I'm wrong). Well, with the weapon degradation system, we can finally approximate the lore closely now by making silver sword more powerful (to some monsters) but more expensive.

Also, having to maintain weapon gives me something to do while in town, like visiting a blacksmith. If Witcher towns are as desolate and lifeless as those in Skyrim I'd be annoyed to visit blacksmiths, but I'm sure they aren't. I imagine I would quite enjoy a walk to the blacksmith in a well-designed witcher town.

 

[Ajira]

I hope we won't need to return to city in the middle of a dungeon. 'After killing this giant I can continue to search Yennefer. Oh, shit. My blade is about to break! Come on Roche, we need to return to town we just past by.'

 

[savioeven]

The durability depends not only continuse usage but also on the monsters like if use only combat to fight a hard shell monster or its skin is hard to cut (even when u try to defend it)
So u have be ready to use a strategy to overcome the battle

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

I see no problem with weapon degradation. There is the potential for annoying busywork, and not everyone appreciates the system even if it was done well, and that's ok. But if well implemented - i.e. the rate of wear is tuned right, fixing it is implemented with care, and the wear of the weapon actually means something in combat and isn't just a fluff numeric to give an illusion of a "deep" system - it also poses a new tactics-esque layer to consider with combat encounters that makes things less straightforward and simple.

 

[dragonbird]

If it does turn out to be annoying busywork, I'll be at the front of the queue hoping for mods and/or patches, but I'm definitely waiting until we see the game before condemning it. We don't know enough about it yet.

 

[ReptilePZ]

Never have I enjoyed a durability system in a game. I am judging it right now. Hard.

Not that anything can be done about it.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

I can't offhand remember a game that had it "just right". It's, I'd wager, quite hard to find the sweet spot in the balance between the rate and effects of wear and the hardship/ease of repairing it. The potential is there though, and I also can't remember a game where it had bothered me so much that it would literally annoy me and/or distract from the experience.

At worst it has been a nuisance of minor proportions due to implementation being of insignificant gameplay value.

 

[schinderhannes.999]

Even without knowledge of the specifics I'm certain that the 'annoyance' of weapon durability will be one of the very first things to be modded out shortly after the game has been released. As was the case with the weight limitation in The Witcher 2, which, if memory serves right got the mod treatment within a week(!) after release.

To mod out weapon durability probably is a walk in the park compared to, let's say, restoring the potion preparation procedure of The Witcher 1 & 2, which I guess would require a bit more than just fiddling around with numeric values or status flags to either give weapons some absurdly high multi-figure durability so that they essentially just start to break after years of in-game time or remove the stat altogether by globally 'deactivating' the item durability attribute.

So if you're one of those annoyed or bothered by the inconvenience of having to look after your weapons' durability (which, for me is a given or a standard even in any RPG with a decent amount of combat) there's a very good chance someone's going to sort that out for you in a timely manner.

 

[PrincessCiri]

Aren't swords/weapons meant to be pretty hardy anyway? I'm no expert but if I'm playing TW3 and swords break so often it gets annoying I think it's going to make the game less enjoyable. Also it will be so frustrating if we spend time collecting rare materials to craft a sword and then the damn thing breaks after a few uses.

I hope it won't work out like that but personally I'm not a fan of making weapons break in video games. It's not something I find enjoyable.

edit: that said, if weapon care is implemented into the game so that we can stop our weapons from rusting/breaking I might prefer that. Understandably a sword will not last long if you sheathe it, still covered in blood. That moisture and blood will make any irl sword rust quickly and soon become useless.

However the problem here is that if you are fighting enemies frequently it's going to be annoying if you then have to spend 5 minutes cleaning your sword just to bump into another hoard of enemies and repeat the same thing.

 

[savioeven]

RetilePZ
if u want a enjoyable durability hell system then play way of the samurai series its really pointless to own a weapon in that game
Edit: the weapon durability will be like in dark souls as the dev are a fan of it too.

 

[EliHarel]

Item management is tricky business. I prefer having less of it, but making each thing more significant. Don't stuff me with loot and countless different swords, but when I do find something, make it significant. Don't make me collect herbs every five meters for alchemy, but if you automate it then at least make the initial creation of each new potion a difficult process and no less than a quest in and of itself. The same goes for weapon maintenance - don't make me pause after every three fights to take care of my weapon, but instead try to make it something rare and interesting.

That's kind of in the air, though. With loot and potion-making it's kinda intuitive how to make it interest (reading in a book or hearing from people where it might be, then a long adventure and a cool location, etc). I'm a bit lost how to make weapon maintenance a one-time cool thing.

 

[neoblade48]

Item management is tricky business. I prefer having less of it, but making each thing more significant. Don't stuff me with loot and countless different swords, but when I do find something, make it significant. Don't make me collect herbs every five meters for alchemy, but if you automate it then at least make the initial creation of each new potion a difficult process and no less than a quest in and of itself. The same goes for weapon maintenance - don't make me pause after every three fights to take care of my weapon, but instead try to make it something rare and interesting.

That's kind of in the air, though. With loot and potion-making it's kinda intuitive how to make it interest (reading in a book or hearing from people where it might be, then a long adventure and a cool location, etc). I'm a bit lost how to make weapon maintenance a one-time cool thing.

A one time cool thing would be repairing them only when you first acquire them. Especially for those items found in the outdoors like you so often found them in The Witcher 2. This would also work great with the option to turn weapon degradation off such that repairing is still a function in the world but it is not something required to do after fights. Therefore, those who find repetitive weapon maintenance annoying get an out while still repairing newly found items. Again if it cannot be done in the base build maybe there is still hope for day one patch or month one patch.

 

[drona.667]

As long as it's not too often and not time and money consuming enough I am fine with it. I think recent game like Dark souls might be a good example of this

 

[KA1N3R]

if u want a enjoyable durability hell system then play way of the samurai series its really pointless to own a weapon in that game

Yep. You basically kill 2 enemies and you need a new sword.
Sometimes, you go through 3 swords to kill a boss